Hi-
I am looking for a contact for a Woman who is interested in learning about chanting and SGI. She lives close to Tawas in a small town called Whittemore. It is on the east side of the state. I might try and contact the community center in Detroit. Thanks.

Due to the distance between members across Michigan Area (from Sault Ste. Marie to Indiana border), we're thinking a practical way of getting the broadest participation in planning and preparation for the June 28-29 conference is to divide up the work and let chapter or even district members pick the task they'd like to do and then work together to achieve it.

Here are some specific tasks your group could take on:

1. Suggest topics for break-out sessions. On both Saturday and on Sunday, we'll have four break-out sessions lasting 75-90 minutes. So what would be some good topics for those 8 sessions?

2. Plan and conduct one of the break-out sessions. This would be a good district activity, and district leaders could guide the process and be the communication liaisons with the area team (Erica Manning, Lisa Swinehard or Ted Miller)

3. Plan and conduct an activity for children or teens.

4. Plan one of the two one-hour meetings when everyone is together (Saturday night 7-8 or Sunday 11-12). These might include such things as experiences, performances, brief reports on break-out sessions, words by a leader (we're inviting national, territory, zone and region leaders), a prepared video or something interactive like a game.

5. Any other idea your group has to further the goals of the conference, which are to promote friendship, dialogue and unity.

On Dec.14, the chapter and area leaders had a great discussion about what it is we want to achieve through holding this conference. Here are some ideas:

The conference is an opportunity to bring our Michigan family together, learn about Buddhism together, and strengthen our faith and our bonds as fellow Bodhisattvas with a great mission to spread Buddhism and help others.

This is the Year of Youth and Victory. Let's involve and celebrate our younger members, and also develop our own youthful spirit.

Let's use the power of our practice to achieve major victories in our lives, and then share and celebrate those victories at the conference. In this way we inspire hope in one another.

President Ikeda's New Year's message states: "Humankind today needs courage and hope to choose a new path of change. . . . The noble mission of the SGI is to impart the energy of courage and the philosophy of hope to societies around the world." Kyoko Tani suggested the theme: "I am the hope of Michigan." We want to share our victories and spread hope!

We will have tangible goals such as having over 125 or more members attend this conference. There will be many obstacles, including financial ones, so achieving this goal will require prayer, encouragement, and courageous struggle.

We will also have intangible goals, such as that every single participant makes at least one valuable life-to-life connection with another person. This will be a weekend for going out of our comfort zones and meeting and sharing stories with other people. Another excerpt from Sensei's New Year's message: "We need to establish and expand a network of friendship brimming with mutual consideration and support."

Here is additional info about the conference:

Cost for Saturday lunch to Sunday lunch is $90, if in the Straits Lodge.
Cost for Saturday lunch to Sunday lunch is $80, if in another lodge.